It would still require 8CP to be build so it could not come any sooner than now but only at the same speed or later.
The thing is that the game is balanced around 1 v 1 where the land mattress is no big problem. If a Brit goes LM he won't have enough fuel for tanks and have the armor disadvantage.
In team games you have a mate to compensate for that. The Brit can bunker in with a mortar pit + bofors to lock down 2 VPs and then barrage the hell out of everything with multiple land mattresses.
All of you have to keep in mind that Germans are much more vulnerable to Allied arty because of the following reasons:
Ostheer:
- Small Troops (Only 4 men for all squads besides Osttruppen)
- The faction relies heavily on its superior support weapons in pair with defensive gameplay: Mortars, MG42, PaKs, are all countered by artillery.
OKW:
- Designed around frontline HQs that get destroyed with only few LM barrages
- Extremely high costs for armor -> No AT capabilities without Raketenwerfers that get easily wiped with the LM.
Meanwhile allied troops (beside Brits) don't face the danger of full wipes with artillery that much. Five/Six men squads usually guarantee one or two survivors even after a critical hit. Also Mortar Pits have a huge range and can only be effectively countered by LeIGs which are wiped by LM barrages.
Don't nerf the LM into a useless state. But reduce the barrage duration and rockets. Panzerwerfer and Stuka have one single barrage whereas the Land Mattress has 30 rockets with a barrage that lasts about 10 seconds. You can't retreat your troops without the high risk of getting wiped while on retreat. Not speaking about PaKs that cannot retreat and die almost 100% because of the huge area of effect the LM has.
The LM commander is just too good. The commandos can wipe the floor with everything that is left after a LM barrage because they can spawn instantly at any building which is stupid. Make commandos appear from the glider just like the ones in other doctrines.
I'd be fine with that if gliders didn't take 30 minutes to land and the squad was 5 men and could plant demos. Commandos out of buildings is kinda cheesy tho, but so are falls. Basically the same thing with some differences in performance that even out.